RAS AL KHAIMAH: A group of construction workers on Thursday evening attended the burial of one of their co-workers whose suicide they had frantically tried to prevent in vain.

When the body was ready to be released, the wife of the dead identified as V K, informed the Indian organisation, Sevanam, that she preferred to conduct his funeral here as she won’t be able to make arrangements for it back home. Following this, the Community Welfare Wing of Sevanam, an Indian association, took the initiative for his burial, said its convenor S. Prasad.

“His sponsor was willing to pay for the repatriation. We have requested him to send that money to his wife. His colleagues are also pooling in some money to send it to her,” Prasad said.

VK, who hailed from Tamil Nadu in India, ended his life on January 12 by jumping from the third floor of his accommodation, ignoring the pleas of Ras Al Khaimah Police and his fellow workers who had tried to persuade him to stop taking the extreme step.

The police were called in after one of V.K.’s roommates found a pool of blood in the room when he woke up to relieve himself around 3am. Realising that V.K. had slit his wrist and throat, the roommate raised the alarm. At this, V.K. ran into the kitchen and locked himself up. He also started breaking the windowpane of the kitchen.

Sensing danger, the roommates informed the police and tried their best to calm him down. When the police reached the spot within minutes, they also tried to convince him to open the door to take him to the hospital.

Before the police could break in, V.K. jumped out of the window. Though he was rushed to the hospital, he died within a few hours.

One of his roommates, Subramanya Palani, told Khaleej Times that none of them knew the reason for his suicide. “He didn’t have any children even after 10 years of marriage. He used to live in a rented house with his wife back home and his widowed mother has been living somewhere else with his siblings,” said Palani.

“After he came over to work with our company in Abu Dhabi one-and-a-half years ago, his wife went back to her parents. He had asked for a transfer to this Ras Al Khaimah project and he had told the company that he would go on leave after one month,” he recollected.

However, the incident took place three days after V.K. reached Ras Al Khaimah. Palani said there was nothing unusual in the behaviour of VK when he went to bed before the incident. “He was quite normal and he had gone to the hotel to have dinner with others. I think he also spoke to his wife on the phone.”